CLINICAL-FEATURES OF THE 1992 OUTBREAK OF EQUINE VIRAL ARTERITIS IN SPAIN

During 1992, a widespread outbreak of Equine viral arteritis (EVA) occ urred at a riding establishment near Barcelona, Spain, A total of 31 o ut of 186 horses on the premises displayed clinical signs, most freque ntly, fever, depression, mild ventral and limb oedema and a vesicular- erosive stomatitis, with hypersalivation, petechiations and small ulce rations, Affected horses developed illness of varying severity with on ly a few exhibiting a severe form of the disease and no mortality was recorded, Haematological and blood biochemical examination the most se verely affected horses revealed a thrombocytopenia, slight leucocytosi s with neutrophilia, lymphopenia and eosinopenia, an increase in plasm a fibrinogen and a small rise in serum proteins and indirect bilirubin values, Diagnosis was confirmed by demonstration of seroconversion to equine arteritis virus in acute and convalescent phase sera, Attempte d isolation of the virus from citrated blood samples proved unsuccessf ul.